Alain Altinoglu

Alain Altinoglu has been Music Director of the Frankfurt Radio Symphony (hr-Sinfonieorchester Frankfurt) since 2021 and has since extended his contract until the summer of 2028. He is internationally very successful with his interpretations of the romantic and impressionist repertoire as well as with the contemporary music and classical modernism. Alain Altinoglu regularly conducts such distinguished orchestras as Berliner Philharmoniker, Wiener Philharmoniker, Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra Amsterdam, London Symphony Orchestra, Chicago Symphony Orchestra, Cleveland Orchestra, Boston Symphony Orchestra, The Philadelphia Orchestra, Münchner Philharmoniker, Russian National Orchestra, Philharmonia Orchestra London, Royal Stockholm Philharmonic Orchestra, Danish National Symphony Orchestra, Sächsische Staatskapelle Dresden, Deutsches Symphonie-Orchester Berlin, Tonhalle-Orchester Zürich, as well as all the major Parisian orchestras. He has also taken over the artistic direction of the Festival International de Colmar, the largest classical music festival in Alsace, in 2023.

Altinoglu also belongs to the league of internationally highly renowned opera conductors. Since 2016 he has been Music Director of the Brussels »Théâtre Royal de la Monnaie«. He has already conducted premieres at many of the world’s leading opera houses. In addition to the Metropolitan Opera New York, the Royal Opera House Covent Garden London, the Teatro Colón Buenos Aires, the Vienna State Opera, the Zurich Opera House, the Deutsche Oper Berlin, the Staatsoper Unter den Linden, the Bavarian State Opera Munich as well as the three Parisian opera houses, he regularly gives guest performances at the festivals in Bayreuth, Salzburg, Orange and Aix-en-Provence.

As a pianist, Alain Altinoglu has a strong affinity for the lied repertoire and performs regularly with mezzo-soprano Nora Gubisch. He also makes occasional forays into jazz and improvisation. Numerous CD releases bear witness to his diverse, successful artistic work.

Born in Paris in 1975, the Frenchman with Armenian roots studied at the Paris Conservatoire National Supérieur de Musique et de Danse, where he teaches since then and leads the conducting class since 2014.

HR-Sinfonieorchester

Founded in 1929 as one of the first radio symphony orchestras in Germany, the Frankfurt Radio Symphony (hr-Sinfonieorchester Frankfurt) has been one of the leading international Mahler and Bruckner orchestras since decades and today successfully negotiates the challenges of a modern top-ranking orchestra.

Famed for its outstanding wind section, its powerful strings and its dynamic and sophisticated playing, the orchestra of the Hessischer Rundfunk (German Public Radio of Hesse) together with its new Music Director Alain Altinoglu is associated with musical excellence but also with an interesting and varied repertoire.

With innovative new concert formats, highly acclaimed CD productions and digital offerings, regular appearances in music capitals such as Vienna, Salzburg, Madrid and Paris as well as regular tours to Asia, the Frankfurt Radio Symphony underlines its prominent position within the European orchestral landscape and has an outstanding reputation worldwide.

Known for its groundbreaking world premiere recordings of the original versions of Bruckner’s symphonies and the first complete digital recording of all Mahler symphonies, the Frankfurt Radio Symphony established a tradition in the interpretation of Romantic literature, which radiated from the longtime Music Director and current Honorary Conductor Eliahu Inbal to his successors Dmitri Kitaenko and Hugh Wolff, and on to the era of today’s Conductor Laureate Paavo Järvi and to Andrés Orozco-Estrada, who last led the orchestra for seven years with great success as Music Director.

From its very inception, the orchestra displayed a firm commitment to both traditional and contemporary music under its first Music Director Hans Rosbaud. Following the war and during reconstruction, the Frankfurt Radio Symphony grew with Kurt Schröder, Winfried Zillig and Otto Matzerath at the helm, finally achieving international standing between the 1960s and 1980s under Dean Dixon and Eliahu Inbal, with guest performances worldwide and the production of multi-award-winning records.